Are we looking for patterns? Turns-of-the-century are important for human beings; we invest them with symbolic significance. Then, shortly after the century has turned, for reasons that appear to relate to international politics and mility, but in fact speak to the things that stir collective human unrest and enable violence, we go to war. After 1700: the
War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714); after 1800; the grand
Napoleonic war (1803-1815); after 1900 the
First World War (1914-1918). If we make it to 2015 without a world war, we'll have bucked the trend. Unless we're persuaded that the War on Terror (2001-?) is precisely that.
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